General Motors communication experience

Session 1: Keynote Address
Saturday, October 26, 2013

This being my first experience at the PRSSA conference I didn’t know what to expect. Surrounded by about 1,100 well-dressed people in one room is intimidating. Students my age along with many professionals filled the endless rows of chairs. Once the National President of PRSSA, Brian Price, took stage the room fell silent. After many introductions, Mary Hengie, APR of General Motors took the spotlight. In 27 years Hengie held many several communication position.

Being experienced in public relations, Hengie answered questions that were posted on Twitter she was mentioned in. Hengie answered the question, “What is a world without social media?” with the simple explanation that writing matters. Different channels receive different styles of writing; for example, tweets should be short and concise and blogs can be longer with as much detail as desired.

Another question asked was, “What has General Motors done to keep up with media changes?” Hengie replied with multiple responses, but the main thing I took from what she said was that if something has a reasonable chance of working then try it. New things make results. However, evaluating which channel(s) such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etcetera is best fitting for you or your organization is key. Not all social media are successful for every circumstance.

I learned plenty of information via Mary Hengie, APR. She was extremely informative and portrayed herself as honest as they come. I believe listening to her speak has influenced me to push for what I want and be all I can be.

More information on Mary Hengie, APR you can follow her on Twitter at @maryhengie.